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Pant-Wettingly Scary Public Information Films

GNC said:
I think you could show that PIF to someone you suspected of being a space alien, and if they didn't flinch at the final second or two you'd know for sure they were not of this Earth.
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or use it with a Voight-Kampff.
 
GNC said:
But where is hypothermia man? I'm STILL looking for him over 30 years later! Every winter he was there, stumbling through the snow, and now he's been wiped from the face of the Earth.
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Yeah it's a shame that it hasn't found its way to YouTube yet, think it was called, Do Not Lie Down and Sleep.

*Edit
Just noticed Dr_Baltar already posted the name, will have to check now and then in case someone uploads it.
 
FrKadash said:
Yeah it's a shame that it hasn't found its way to YouTube yet, think it was called, Do Not Lie Down and Sleep.

*Edit
Just noticed Dr_Baltar already posted the name, will have to check now and then in case someone uploads it.
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I've been checking since YT started! It wasn't even on either volume of Network's Charley Says DVDs.
 
GNC said:
Isn't that more to do with the allure of the internet and gaming keeping us all indoors? Also a recent survey in Scotland proved millions of pounds had been wasted encouraging the population to get out and do sport (proper sport, not unsupervised and potentially dangerous activities like climbing trees or running over frozen ponds) because the vast majority were "too embarrassed" to be seen exercising so didn't bother. Maybe there should be a "Don't Be Embarrassed!" PIF. Which presumably would be excruciatingly embarrassing in itself.
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Some years ago there was a big survey about why girls in school didn't take to sport. One of the main reasons was the old-fashioned and unflattering kit they had to wear: semi-transparent/underwear-showing tops, little skirts that flashed the pants, that sort of thing. School sports gear hadn't kept up with the times, it seemed.

Dunno what the outcome was but one hopes things were updated a little.
 
Sound like St Trinians. Those school uniforms of the 60's and 70's severely affected us blokes too . Especially since, going to an all boys school, we were unaware what exactly went on inside the girl's uniforms, except we knew whatever it was did strange things to our nether regions.

Chaps with sisters were eagerly plumbed for information, but some of us were slow learners.

Perhaps some sort of public information film would have prevented the development of all sorts of mild fetishes.
 
Cochise said:
Sound like St Trinians. Those school uniforms of the 60's and 70's severely affected us blokes too . Especially since, going to an all boys school, we were unaware what exactly went on inside the girl's uniforms, except we knew whatever it was did strange things to our nether regions.

Chaps with sisters were eagerly plumbed for information, but some of us were slow learners.

Perhaps some sort of public information film would have prevented the development of all sorts of mild fetishes.
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Yeah, a PIF about schoolgirl physiology, that wouldn't be immediately banned and the director prosecuted AT ALL.
 
Cochise said:
Perhaps some sort of public information film would have prevented the development of all sorts of mild fetishes.
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Or encourage new ones to develop...
 
:) I meant without the uniforms...oh, never mind.

It's not just the blokes, you know - my missus liked a bit of retro dress-up as well - any fancy dress party and the old school tie would come out.
 
if you think 13 year old girls should come with public safety advice, what about the full-grown adult version ???
 
GNC said:
The music in Children Watch Us Cross is brilliant! But this year I finally found Graham Stark giving directions on parking in pidgin French to a lorry driver after over 30 years, so I hold out hope for hypothermia guy. "This man is not drunk..."...
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Oh, wow - you don't have a link, do you; I've spent fruitless hours looking for that and would love to see it again. Edit: don't worry - found it. Wasn't on YT last time I looked.

There's a wee bit of a film I always associate with PIF's, but which I don't think was - it just tended to be shown in the same time slots. (I think it may have been an advert for the National Trust, or something similar.)

Anyway, said filmlet opened and ended with a duel between two swordsmen (with images of castles and bosky woods etc inbetween), and I found it most disconcerting to begin my morning viewing of Belle and Sebastian or Tintin prefaced by seeing a man quite graphically run through with a rapier.
 
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henry said:
if you think 13 year old girls should come with public safety advice, what about the full-grown adult version ???
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Oh, the full grown ones even more!

Sexual awareness was completely different back then - we preferred train spotting to girls until at least 15!
 
As for frozen ponds.

How about 'Under Ice' by Kate Bush ?

INT21
 
The Balloon (1981)

I don't remember this one being shared. BFI have tagged it ''A creepy clown brings balloons and death in this dreamlike road safety film, along with some not-so-subtle product placement.''

And

If the love child of Alfred Hitchcock and Federico Fellini were commissioned by Slush Puppy to make a road safety film, then this would be it. The mix of high and low camera angles, the music, and the creepy clown with his mysterious balloons all add up to a strangely dreamlike experience. The fact that two kids are apparently struck by cars, but everyone is more worried about burst balloons only adds to the almost certainly unintended surrealism.
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https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-balloon-1981-online
 
This YouTube compilation is called:

TOP 50: SCARIEST PUBLIC INFORMATION FILMS – REDUX!

Contains nightmare fuel. Viewer discretion is advised. Public Information Films (PIFs) are almost "mini horror movies" (the British version of PSAs) which are used to inform the public about everyday safety or particular services for their own welfare... some have been more macabre than others, and these are only 50 of them. These can span from topics such as fire safety, drink driving, child abuse, AIDS prevention, rail safety, electricity safety and many more. Including a few additional entries, sit through 52-minutes of the creepiest, scariest, and downright bone-chilling public information films the UK has ever produced... most of which are in HD for the first time ever! Includes a few cult classics such as: "Apaches" "Charley Says" "Dark and Lonely Water" "Jo and Petunia" "Play Safe" and many more! (Well, 45 to be exact...)

 
One of my uncle's claims to fame was that he worked during WW 2 in the Army's film unit, turning out among other works a notorious instruction film warning GI's about vd. He swore proudly that It was so explicit that there were always a few guys who threw up during their mandatory showing.
 
Lb8535 said:
One of my uncle's claims to fame was that he worked during WW 2 in the Army's film unit, turning out among other works a notorious instruction film warning GI's about vd. He swore proudly that It was so explicit that there were always a few guys who threw up during their mandatory showing.
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In high school we were shown two public information films, one on the horrors of unsafe driving which showed the results of fatal car accidents in full colour. There were victims in situ, victims in the morgue as well as an autopsy. One classmate fainted and another two ran from the room crying and trying to hold back their vomit.
I also went to a Catholic private high school where we were shown an anti abortion film called 'The Silent Scream'. It's available on YouTube and no matter your opinion on the topic, the film will stay with you. You've been warned.
 
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Lord Lucan said:
In high school we were shown two public information films, one on the horrors of unsafe driving which showed the results of fatal car accidents in full colour. There were victims in situ, victims in the morgue as well as an autopsy. One classmate fainted and another two ran from the room crying and trying to hold back their vomit. ...
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Surviving the gory highway safety instruction-by-terror films was a rite of passage in American high schools of the Sixties.

The two films I had to endure were the classics Signal 30 and Mechanized Death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_30

https://www.automobilemag.com/news/school-of-wreck/
 
Lord Lucan said:
I also went to a Catholic private high school where we shown an anti abortion film called 'The Silent Scream'. It's available on YouTube and no matter your opinion on the topic, the film will stay with you. You've been warned.
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We also had a film - maybe that one - along the same lines, in the context of a presentation by a SPUC spokeswoman. It was extremely graphic, especially in those days, when gory surgical operations were not featured daily on television. Televison itself was mainly b & w.

I do remember that one lad, at least, left the lecture theatre in some distress. He was a big lad and a bit of a bully; rumour had it that he was the only one in the room at all likely to have caused an unwanted pregnancy. The teachers were Christian Brothers, so I think they were in the clear for that! We were, I think, fourth-year pupils, so 14 to 15; though far-from-innocent, we were not exposed to much in the way of gynaecology, professional or amateur, in those days.

Accustomed as I was to discussion, I tried to raise some sort of objection to the emotive and unbalanced viewpoint we had been given but this was no debate! :yellowc:
 
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JamesWhitehead said:
We also had a film - maybe that one - along the same lines, in the context of a presentation by a SPUC spokeswoman. It was extremely graphic, especially in those days, when gory surgical operations were not featured daily on television. Televison itself was mainly b & w.

I do remember that one lad, at least, left the lecture theatre in some distress. He was a big lad and a bit of a bully; rumour had it that he was the only one in the room at all likely to have caused an unwanted pregnancy. The teachers were Christian Brothers, so I think they were in the clear for that!

Accustomed as I was to debates, I tried to raise some sort of objection to the emotive and unbalanced viewpoint we had been given but this was no debate! :yellowc:
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All very odd wasn't it? It was considered compulsory viewing for us, although you could be excused if you had a note from your parents. I don't recall anyone that did, however I do remember much weeping from some of the girls, probably some of the boys too as it was quite traumatizing, especially with the Sister reminding my female classmates that they ensured instant excommunication if they were to travel down that road.
Ironically, our science teacher, an enthusiastic, knowledgeable, liked by everyone guy (who tragically died young), taught us (against the curriculum) the benefits of and options available to us of birth control and was subsequently suspended from his post for 3 months.
 
I don't remember being shown any public information films as a kid.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Sure, I was always doing that. It's what made me the man I am.
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iu


maximus otter
 
Early 80s at school we were shown a horribly outdated (must've been at least 5 years old) film about the horrors of std's, which had a young woman with 70s flicked hair, at the the doctors being told she had caught a disease. "Oh no, not gonorrhea".
Well as this was the start of the aids era, and we were being told that if you looked at another's persons genitals, you would probably die, rather than be warned off stds the whole thing felt so absurd the whole assembly burst out laughing.
 
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